Moules provencales
Another quick but elegant dish. On a cool night, these mussels and a fresh loaf of bread are all you need. Be sure to look for closed mussels with unblemished shells and give each a rough scrub under cold water to remove any grit.
Ingredients
3 lbs mussels, scrubbed clean
3 tbsp butter (reserve 1 tbsp of it for the sauce)
3/4 cup white wine
2 shallots, chopped fine
1 bay leaf
3 tbsp parsley, chopped fine
1 tsp dry thyme (or a few sprigs fresh)
1 clove garlic, minced
Handful or two of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved if need be
One lemon, quartered
How to
Put a large pot over high heat and add all of the above ingredients except for the lemon, parsley and 1 tbsp of butter. Cover and leave on high heat until all of the mussels have opened up. Remove the mussels, add most of the parsley and the remaining butter, and cook the sauce down to a less runny consistency. Pour the sauce over the bowls of mussels and garnish with the lemon and the remaining parsley. Serve with lots of fresh bread. to sop up the sauce.
Striped bass, lemon, parsley, cilantro
Whole fish are terrifying. Look at that guy up there! Eyes like the Mona Lisa, following you wherever you go; mouth slightly agape as if shocked at his fate; fins and tail hacked off, somehow reminiscent of Sloth. But fear not, the beast can be tamed with relative ease, though I do owe a bit of thanks to Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food.
(As an aside, I find entire sections of this cookbook to be of little use for about ten months out of the year in New York. Sure, simple food is great when you have fresh ingredients year round. But I'm with Tyler Cowen on this one -- in places like New York, where ingredients are not always at their freshest for many parts of the year, there is much to be said for process and ingenuity. We northeasterners don't have the luxury of simply letting the ingredients shine. Summer is the exception, though, so to Alice Waters we go.)
Pick a fish
First up is picking the fish. Assume between a half and three quarters of a pound of whole fish per person. Look for shiny fish with well-colored scales and clear, not cloudy, eyes. Ask the fishmonger to remove the scales, guts, fins, and tail. Alright, now you have a nice looking fish! From here things get easier.
How to
Generously season the inside and outside of the fish with salt and pepper. Layer some lemon slices inside, along with a handful of fresh herbs -- tonight it was cilantro and parsley. Tie that baby up with some twine, paint it with a little olive oil, and light a fire under the grill.
When the fire is nice and hot, rub some olive oil on the grate to prevent the fish from sticking. Toss the fish onto a section with medium heat, cover, and check periodically to make sure it doesn't stick. Plan on cooking the first for about ten minutes for each inch of thickness at the fish's thickest part. Then remove the fish from the grill, let it rest for a few minutes, show it off to the assembled onlookers, and filet it either tableside or back in the kitchen. Serve with a little salsa verde or wedges of lemon. (That salsa verde came in handy the next day on a leftover fish sandwich too.)